Two southern Alberta boys plus one Memorial Cup champion plus one former Lethbridge Hurricane plus another recruit from Ontario.

Add it all up and it equals one solid summer of recruiting for the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns men’s hockey team.

In a press conference Tuesday afternoon at the U of L the Pronghorns unveiled five players that will don ‘Horns colours as the team skates into its 2010-11 CIS season.

Joining the Pronghorns this year is Lethbridge’s Taylor Gal and Foremost’s Mason Conway in addition to Memorial Cup champion Ryan Letts, former Hurricane Nick Hotson and Ontario resident Tyler Melancon.

Gal chose to forgo his 20 year-old Western Hockey League season with the Medicine Hat Tigers and join the hometown Pronghorns.

“We were lucky to get a hometown guy,” said Pronghorns head coach Greg Gatto of Gal, who had a career high 57 points with the Tigers last season. “We haven't had too many Lethbridge guys around here. He’ll definitely fill in for (Adam) Chorneyko, who we lost last year. It’s a big loss, but he’ll give us lots of points. He had 57 points last year in Medicine Hat. So we’re looking for some good things that way. We’ll get him on the penalty kill. He's just a good, character kid that wants to be here, and that's a huge part of our program.”

Gal was looking forward to lacing up in his hometown.

“It’ll be nice to play here. I haven’t played here for quite a few years now. It’s just going to be fun,” he said. “The guys seem like they’re really good guys and they have a really good team here. I thought I could bring myself in and contribute here and there. I’m looking at having a really good year.”

While not ruling out a career in hockey, Gal made the decision to turn his attention toward his education.

“There’s a point in time when (you think) hockey might not work out and you have to go to school,” said Gal. “I’m not saying hockey isn’t going to work out, but this is a good league and (there are) a lot of good guys in this league. You see it every year (where) guys leave here to go to the East Coast. I just made the decision.”

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